Why do major religious universities have Human Origin Exhibits?
Application: Protecting ourselves from the anti-God message being subtly taught at most Christian universities.
In this Lesson, Dr. Bob visits the Human Origins exhibit at the Bean Museum at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah. Here, as in every “top-tier” Christian university, evolution is taught at the expense of belief in Biblical Creation. God is conspicuously absent from these museums, with only a nod towards "faith" and implying that faith is often in opposition to "science." Recognizing that children and youth are being targeted in these museums is an important step in countering the indoctrination.
Supplemental Information
The discussion about human origins is at the heart of every believer's faith. Visitors to exhibits like this one come to the museum to learn about who they are. The expectation of any visitor to a museum associated with a religious faith would be that the message presented would be consistent with the faiths core beliefs. However, even when obvious opportunities exist to point young visitors to God as the Creator, the credit is often given to impersonal aspects of nature.
This museum's exhibit title, "Because of Plants...", is echoed in the message written below it. "Because of plants we have food to eat and air to breathe." There is no mention of God, or His beneficial creation. It is important for believers to remember that plants are another indication of God's love. He created the plants to provide the clean water, air and food for all living creatures to drink, breath and eat. In Genesis 1:29 God said, "See, I give you every seed-bearing plant that is upon all the earth, and every tree that has seed-bearing fruit; they shall be yours for food."
The Human “Family Tree”
What does the Bible say about the origin of humanity? It is clear from reading the book of Genesis that God said He created the first man, and the first woman. So, it is confusing to see a message at the Provo museum that is in conflict with that fundamental belief, particularly in a museum funded through member donations.
A review of creatures presented as an ancestor to man, in this strange family tree exhibit follows:
Australopithecus
"Lucy" (Australopithecus afarensis is the most popular representative of this group) are apes. The late British zoologist Solly Zuckerman declared, “They are just apes. Not one of its ape-shaped bones was shaped exactly like the corresponding bone in a human body. Dr. Tobias claimed: "Australopithecus was far more ape-like in many of its features than we'd ever dared imagine previously." (For more insight into the false narrative of Lucy and its discovery, visit Assumptions).
Neanderthal
Neanderthals possessed a larger brain size than current humans, and had a fully developed language center. They cared for their sick and elderly, buried their dead in ritual burials, created art and even made string and cloth. This group of humans lived in primitive conditions, but were nonetheless fully human.
Cro-Magnon
Cro-Magnon used spears, stone knives, slings, and pitfall traps. Some of them sewed clothes and sorted out clever ways to survive severe cold—like Inuit peoples still do. And just like the Inuit and others, these early Europeans survived in a primitive setting but were not primitive in mind or body.
Recent research has demonstrated that Cro-Magnon had a 15-20% larger brain capacity than that of modern humans. Rather than supporting evolution, this provides evidence for the de-evolution of man since the fall of Adam.
Homo ergaster
First promoted under the name Homo ergaster, it’s now widely accepted that Homo ergaster is simply the African form of Homo erectus. Homo ergaster appears abruptly, without any apparent ancestors. Homo erectus specimens from Dmanisi in the Republic of Georgia are comparable in age with the oldest Homo. erectus in Africa (also called Homo ergaster). Even non-Biblical paleontologists say that it looks as if humans popped into existence all at once in a multitude of places! It is also significant that Dmanisi, which has become a major focal point for anthropology and is thought to represent an important dispersal point for early man, lies within 125 miles of Mount Ararat. It is now widely believed that humans first appear in Asia and then migrated into Africa. As fully human, Homo ergaster/Homo erectus is leading this charge.
Homo floresiensis
Homo florensiensis was likely a member of the population of humans with Down syndrome according to an international research team. Their conclusions were recently published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. This case highlights “paleoanthropology’s idiosyncrasies” and illustrates “a ‘bandwagon effect’ in human ancestry reconstruction, among professionals and journalists,” wrote the report the authors in their article entitled “Flores facts – the Liang Bua Cave skeletons.”
The Religion of Evolution
Presenting any of these creatures as members of the human "family tree" reveals the hidden agenda of evolutionary scientists, to replace God and to create their own anti-God religion. This religion requires faith, and has a set of core doctrines its followers must accept. The differences that should be present in Christian schools are unfortunately missing in many such universities. If God is absent from the discussion, it reveals the true intention of those presenting the information.
Haeckel and Embryo Development
Haeckel's problems begin immediately after he published his work Natürliche Schöpfungsgeschichte in 1868. It was discovered that he had used the same illustration in his representation of three different types of animals. He stated that this demonstrated their evolutionary development. He artificially created similarity where there was non. He represented these illustrations as being from a dog, chicken and turtle embryo.
This was not the full extent of Haeckel's manipulation of images to support his evolutionary tale. He stated that all embryos go through steps of development as a result of their evolutionary past. In particular he pointed to "gill slits" present in human embryos.
The so-called gill slits of a human embryo have nothing to do with gills, and the human embryo does not pass through a fish stage or any other evolutionary stage. This theory is called "recapitulation." The theory of recapitulation, also called the biogenetic law or embryological parallelism—often expressed using Ernst Haeckel's phrase "ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny"—is a historical hypothesis that the development of the embryo of an animal, from fertilization to gestation or hatching (ontogeny), goes through stages resembling or representing successive adult stages in the evolution of the animal's remote ancestors (phylogeny).
The development of the human embryo reveals steady progress toward a fully functional human body. Never in the course of development does a human embryo absorb oxygen from water as fish do with gills. (The human embryo is fully supplied with oxygen through the umbilical cord.) In fact, these “gill slits” are not even slits.
So what are these misnamed structures? Actually, they are nothing more than folds in the region of the tiny embryo’s throat. By the 28th day of life, the embryo’s brain and spinal cord seem to be racing ahead of the rest of the body in growth. Therefore, for a time, the spinal cord is actually longer than the body, forcing the body to curl and flexing the neck area forward. (This curled embryo with the long spinal cord is mistakenly accused by some people of having a tail.) Just as many people develop a double chin when bending the neck forward, so the embryo has folds in its neck area due to this flexing.
In spite of having been exposed as a fraud, this theory is still presented as factual in many biology textbooks, particularly those used in public schools. This image is from page 162 from biologist Ken Miller’s 1994 textbook Biology: Discovering Life with the caption also shown.
A version of this same image can still be seen in museums, such as the Bean Museum, in support of their evolutionary religion.
While these museums may give a nod to God. They fail to acknowledge Him in all creation. This message posted at the entrance painfully demonstrates this fact:
It is a partial quote from Job chapter 12, that begins "But ask now the beasts, and they shall teach thee; and the fowls of the air, and they shall tell thee"
Conspicuously absent from the quote, and from these museums is what follows:
"...Or speak to the earth, and it shall teach thee: and the fishes of the sea shall declare unto thee. Who knoweth not in all these that the hand of the Lord hath wrought this? In whose hand is the soul of every living thing, and the breath of all mankind."
The significance of this passage is in what the beast, fowls, earth and fish can teach us: that the Lord made it all, and it is His breath that is within us all. When visiting any museum, even one that is sponsored by a religious group, remember to acknowledge God in all things, even if they do not.
From Dr. Bob:
It is important that we develop the ability to separate any concerns we may have about church-sponsored institutions from the church and our belief in Jesus Christ and His gospel. We recommend reaching out to these institutions to express your concern after you have reviewed the discussion posted in “Believing, in the Church.”
Scripture References
"Then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature." Genesis 2:7
"Then God said, 'Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.'" Genesis 1:26
"Thus it is written, 'The first man Adam became a living being'; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit." 1 Corinthians 15:45
"I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well." Psalm 139:14
"He answered, 'Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female...'" Matthew 19:4
"But ask the beasts, and they will teach you; the birds of the heavens, and they will tell you; or the bushes of the earth, and they will teach you; and the fish of the sea will declare to you. Who among all these does not know that the hand of the Lord has done this? In his hand is the life of every living thing and the breath of all mankind." Job 12:7-10
Related Content
The power of assumptions associated with the Lucy fossil and its interpretation by its discover Dr. Johannson are reviewed by Dr. Bob is this presentation.
Dr. Bob visits the Palmdale Aircraft Museum and speaks about homology, and God's creative process embedded in the DNA of every living thing. (Full L.I.F.E. Lesson Here)
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